1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to weather radar systems and more particularly to a weather data aggregation and display system that utilizes a network of member aircraft for sharing data to provide weather imagery of Significant Meteorological Systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Weather has been identified as a cause or contributing factor to nearly 25% of aviation accidents and 35% of fatalities. Accidents occur when a chain of events leads to a failure of an aircraft system, a mistake on the part of the crew piloting the aircraft, or a combination thereof. Improved levels of weather information and the use of pilot decision aids may be helpful in breaking the chain of events that leads to an accident.
Significant Meteorological Systems (SMS) are weather systems that represent a hazard or potential hazard to an aircraft. The typical Significant Meteorological System is a storm that includes clouds, winds, precipitation (rain, snow, hail, etc), or icing conditions.
In today's environment, the flight crew only has three sources of data regarding Significant Meteorological Systems that may be present along the intended flight path of the aircraft.
1. The flight crew receives weather briefings in text format prior to departure.
2. The flight crew receives weather updates during the flight in voice or text format via aircraft-to-ground communications systems.
3. The flight crew sees the output of the Airborne Weather Radar System which is installed on the aircraft.
On small aircraft (i.e. general aviation aircraft) the flight crew generally only has access to the first two forms of weather data, because the aircraft do not typically carry a weather radar system.
Airborne Weather Radar Systems collect data regarding Significant Meteorological Systems by transmitting an RF signal and measuring the return signal from the Significant Meteorological System. The magnitude of the returned signal is dependent upon the amount of moisture in the Significant Meteorological System. Modern radar systems typically measure intensity of precipitation, range, bearing, and azimuth to the precipitation, as well as the velocity of the precipitation (and by implication the winds that carry the precipitation).
The output of the Airborne Weather Radar System is typically displayed as a weather map to the flight crew on flight deck display. However, many modern radar system can also provide electronic data representations of the precipitation intensity, distance to the precipitation, direction and speed of the precipitation (and the winds that carry the precipitation) to other computing systems. This allows another computing system to “interpret” the data and to “produce” information. This new information can then be rendered into images for display on a flight deck display or can be used perform hazard assessments or other analyses of the information.
The existing technology for airborne weather radar systems provides a raster image of the storms ahead of the aircraft. The range is variable from 10 to 160 Nm. This provides a limited view of the storm. The range is limited to 160 Nm or less which is 15 minutes or less into the future at cruise speeds. The field of view is limited by the installation design of the system and can very from +/−60 degrees to +/−90 degrees. The flight crew cannot always see through very heavy storms which are the most dangerous to the aircraft.
Emerging technologies allow the merging of real-time weather images from the onboard radar system with uplinked images to form a more complete understanding of the storm. The ground-based Doppler Weather Radar systems that provide the detailed storm images for uplink to the aircraft are only available in developed countries (they are predominately in the U.S.). Thus, enhanced WXR capability is not available for the majority of the earth's land masses or for any of the oceanic regions.
Furthermore, the update rate on the uplinked weather is rather slow (15 minute intervals).
Additionally, data correlation between airborne and ground based radar is difficult. There is a slow update rate for uplinked weather (15 minute intervals). There are data/image differences due to large differences in altitudes and beam azimuths between airborne and ground systems.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,441,773, issued to Kelly et al, discloses a radar displaying system and method for use in displaying weather radar information on a cockpit display of an aircraft involving receiving on-board weather radar information from an on-board weather radar system and ground-based weather radar information up-linked to the aircraft from a ground-based weather radar system. The information from the on-board weather radar system and the information from the ground-based weather radar system are combined to generate composite weather radar information. In response to the composite information, the cockpit display simultaneously displays both on-board weather radar imagery and ground-based weather radar imagery.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,201,494, also issued to Kronfeld et al, discloses an automatic storm finding weather radar that uses a storm finding algorithm to automatically control the weather radar to eliminate manual control. The storm finding algorithm uses the 0 degree Centigrade isotherm altitude where precipitation is most likely to first occur to calculate an altitude search layer to find storms. The storm finding algorithm calculates the antenna upper and lower tilt angles and the number of scans to search the altitude search layer. A list of useable antenna tilt values is formed to drive the antenna controller. The antenna controller scans the antenna at the lower tilt angle and then moves to the next tilt angle until the search is complete. The search is then repeated using any new data.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,744,382, issued to Lapis et al, discloses an apparatus and method for displaying weather and other hazard information to a pilot with additional content which helps a pilot avoid no-fly-zones and to prepare a new flight path through a group of widely scattered thunderstorms. The display shows a no-fly-zone around the storm and the no-fly-zone is depicted differently, depending upon variables, such as distance from the aircraft, velocity of the storm being tracked and others.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,043,756, issued to Bateman et al, entitled “Aircraft Weather Information System,” discloses a system and method for downlinking weather data, generated by existing weather and data sensors, to a ground station. The ground station utilizes data from multiple aircraft to form refined weather information, and uplinks the refined weather information to the aircraft. The refined weather information is stored at the aircraft and picture generating equipment, such as an existing onboard ground proximity terrain picture and symbol generator, generates pictorial information depicting weather. The pictorial information is displayed, for example by an existing EFIS or weather radar display, in the form of polygons.
U.S. Ser. No. 11/014,431, entitled, “Atmospheric Data Aggregation And Forecasting System”, filed concurrently herewith, by co-applicants, E. Anderson and P. McCusker, and assigned to the present assignee, discloses an atmospheric data aggregation and forecasting system that utilizes a network of member aircraft for collecting and sharing data to be used as inputs to atmospheric and turbulence forecasting tools and methods. This co-filed patent application is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.